The Spirit and The Teaching Structure of our Country By David Barton and Rick Green
Share with us the spirit of the Boston tea party.
In the early 1600s, King James I had stridently resisted the Reformation; so to counter the spreading Reformation teachings, he introduced two counter-Reformation “doctrines”: the Divine Right of Kings, and complete submission and non-resistance to authority, explaining that “it is seditious in subjects to dispute what a king may do” and that “I am the husband, the whole [British Isles] is my lawful wife: I am the head and it is my body; I am the shepherd and it is my flock.”
Those doctrines were embraced by British leaders for the next century-and-a-half, but American ministers such as the Rev. Jonathan Mayhew disputed those claims. In Mayhew’s famous and widely-distributed sermon using the Bible to disprove the king’s errant doctrines, he asserted that “rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God.” Therefore, when King George III imposed the tax on tea, the colonists first protested it through traditional means, citing both Scriptures and British law in support of their positions. When the King attempted to coerce them into submission, the colonists resorted to civil disobedience.
(Hebrews 11 lists many heroes of our faith, including the Hebrew midwives, Daniel, Moses, etc., who were made famous for their civil disobedience – for refusing to violate God-ordained principles). Significantly, shortly after the Boston Tea Party, it was proposed in Congress that America’s national motto should be “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.”
How has the teaching structure of our country’s educational system changed?
SIGNIFICANTLY, AMERICA’S FIRST PUBLIC EDUCATION LAW WAS PASSED IN 1647. CALLED “THE OLD DELUDER SATAN ACT,” IT WAS ENACTED TO PREVENT “THAT OLD DELUDER, SATAN, TO KEEP MEN FROM THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES.” AMERICA’S FIRST TEXTBOOK (THE NEW ENGLAND PRIMER, 1690) RELIED HEAVILY UPON THE BIBLE AND WAS USED IN AMERICAN CLASSROOMS UNTIL THE 1930S.
THE FIRST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BIBLE PRINTED IN AMERICA WAS IN 1782, PRINTED BY THE CONTINENTAL CONGRESS AS “A NEAT EDITION OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES FOR THE USE OF OUR SCHOOLS.” IN 1789, CONGRESS PASSED THE FIRST FEDERAL LAW ADDRESSING EDUCATION, REQUIRING THAT SCHOOLS TEACH “RELIGION, MORALITY, AND KNOWLEDGE.” IN 1791, SIGNER OF THE DECLARATION BENJAMIN RUSH (TITLED “THE FATHER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION”) PENNED A POLICY PAPER SETTING FORTH A DOZEN REASONS WHY THE BIBLE WOULD NEVER BE TAKEN OUT OF SCHOOLS.
IN 1844, A UNANIMOUS U. S. SUPREME COURT DECLARED: “WHY MAY NOT THE BIBLE, AND ESPECIALLY THE NEW TESTAMENT . . . BE READ AND TAUGHT AS A DIVINE REVELATION IN [SCHOOL]. . . . WHERE CAN THE PUREST PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY BE LEARNED SO CLEARLY OR SO PERFECTLY AS FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT?” THERE ARE DOZENS OF SIMILAR EXAMPLES, BUT FOR THREE CENTURIES THE PHILOSOPHY OF AMERICAN EDUCATION REFLECTED PROVERBS 1:7 THAT “THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS THE BEGINNING OF KNOWLEDGE.” THIS REMAINED THE STANDARD UNTIL 1962-63, WHEN THE U. S. SUPREME COURT FIRST ORDERED THE REMOVAL OF VOLUNTARY PRAYER AND BIBLE READING FROM PUBLIC EDUCATION.